


That Witch Eyes Don't See

by Razzledazzy



Series: Shadows Guide You Back To The Light [2]
Category: Dishonored (Video Games)
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Blind Character, F/F, First Kiss, First Meetings, Self-Indulgent, Tenderness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-03
Updated: 2019-05-03
Packaged: 2020-02-16 12:05:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18691144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Razzledazzy/pseuds/Razzledazzy
Summary: Even deposed Empresses need to remember to breathe- her vengeance will not be had in one day if she wants to keep anyone from knowing it was hers. Shadows congregate away from the light, and not all Outsider shrines are abandoned.





	That Witch Eyes Don't See

Emily swung in through an open window and landed in a quiet roll that left her kneeling. She’d followed the song of her mother’s heart to this building. Now she could see the blue glow of whale oil lamps glimmering underneath a nearby door. The runes she sought were close. They would be useful for her next mission.

Dealing with Jindosh had left her frazzled in more ways than one- even though the man had no idea she was there until the end. Overconfidence had been his undoing, but it wouldn't be hers.

The room was already occupied. In a split second- she'd whipped out her crossbow and almost shot a sleep dart at the woman. She was blonde, with stringy hair falling around her face and down her back. 

The woman scrambled forward and gathered the runes off of the altar- holding them against her chest as she retreated into the corner.

“Hello?” Emily asked as softly as she could.

The woman flinched and the turned her head towards Emily. Her irises were slashed through so that the black bled into the white past the confines of her iris.

She tilted her head up in a nervous action that was almost defiant. “You’re not an Overseer or a Guard.”

Emily laughed and answered even though it wasn't phrased as a question. “No, I’m not either of those things.”

The woman uncurled somewhat, pushing a piece of nearly white hair behind her ear. “What are you then?”

Emily sheathed her weapons and stood up, walking up to the altar and tracing her fingers across the shattered wood and worn edges. “A friend, hopefully. I was seeking guidance from the Outsider, and I wanted to see what songs those runes sang.”

“Ah, you hear them too.”

“With some help.”

“When I was young, no one believed I could hear them. Everyone thought I was making it up, until I went blind, and then suddenly everyone was more than willing to believe I could touch the void.” She snorted, a rough sound that made Emily smile.

She decided to take a seat near the woman. She had some time to kill, so why not talk to someone who wasn’t a surly captain for a bit?

The woman traced the carvings in the whalebone rune, and turned her distant gaze on Emily’s face- for a moment she was struck by the feeling that she could see right through the mask.

“How long have you heard the Void?” She asked.

Emily was startled by that question and thought about it for a moment before answering. “When I was younger I saw my mother murdered right in front of me. I started having dreams and nightmares that were tied to the Void after that, presumably because the assassin bore the Outsider's mark- but he wasn't the only person in my life to do so. My father bore it as well to avenge my mother. Seems odd to say, but I've always thought of the Outsider as a friend. Though I’ve sometimes wondered if there wasn’t something more going on between the Outsider and my father.” 

She blushed, that had been much more than she intended to say. Her rambling made the woman smile though, and it made her look ten years younger.

The sight stirred something warm in her fingertips. She pulled her mask down. It wouldn't help against a blind woman anyway. “My name is Emily.”

“A nice name, mine is Lilabream, which isn’t nearly as nice. I think I’m named after a fish found off the coast of Morley. If you’re a friend, you can call me Lila,” she held out a hand and Emily shook it.

Lila gasped, “Oh! You’re marked yourself. I thought you might be but I couldn’t hear past your bonecharms. You’ve crafted some of them yourself haven’t you?”

“I have, sometimes they don’t come out right- but it’s relaxing. It makes me feel close to my father.”

Lila nodded, “Well, if you came to use the altar, don’t let me stop you. Here, take these,” she held the runes out. “I’ll find more when he needs me to.”

“If you’re sure.”

“Of course, especially if you promise to visit and tell me how your journey goes. You must be on one- your accent is very Gristol.”

“Guilty as charged, though my father’s from Karnaca.”

Lila tilted her head to the side and smiled. “You move through the shadows like one born to them. Void guide you, Emily from Gristol. I hope to hear you around again soon someday.”

Through the conversation, the pain surrounding her father’s current state seemed far away. Maybe the Outsider was keeping her father company in his marble prison.

Perhaps she would ask, if she could get a word in edgewise at the altar. Outsider help her, the man loved to hear himself talk.

As she approached the wood again, she heard the echo of a laugh in her head. 

 

* * *

 

Corvo had taught her well.

If you saw or heard something, make a note of it and help if you can. You never knew who would be waiting around a dark corner, and people were willing to help those who helped others. Stories of women with keys and old servants with secrets kept her ear firmly to the ground as she made her way through the city.

So when rumors of Weepers in Karnaca started circulating, she was obviously concerned.

Especially when those rumors were interrupted by a scream in an apartment she knew should be empty.

The door was locked, but doors couldn’t stop her when she was determined and curious.

There was a woman with brown hair cowering on the floor. “First weepers now assassins. _It_ went that way. Spare me, kill it. There would be coin in it for you.”

Emily was glad the mask hid her sneer. “There was no weeper here, I lived through the plague in Gristol. If it had been a weeper, you’d be covered in bile. Count yourself lucky it was a bloodfly infested drone and keep your doors and windows locked.”

That had been the end of that, but the rumors persisted.

One night, it was a bone chilling scream. This time echoing from further down an alley. In a dark and twisted space where she could slip through shadows easily, she found a man was holding a length of scrap metal over his head like a torch. Below him was the shape of a woman on the ground. Emily reacted and loosed a sleep dart before he could turn to look at her.

She lunged forward to catch him before he hit his head on the ground. Though it might have been justice for him to wake up with a nasty headache, Emily settled for dumping him into a pile of garbage.

White-blonde hair tangled with dirt and now matted to the woman's face with blood- but Emily already knew.

“Lila?”

“Emily?” her sightless eyes looked up and Emily took a startled step back. There were trails underneath her eyes. A thick substance that on first glance looked like blood.

It was more the color of tar. The kind of tar that was the void-black of the Outsider’s eyes. It wasn’t blood, but she could see where the rumors of a weeper had come from. Especially with the city so on edge from the crown killer and her own activities.

She stepped forward, her boots making a sharp click against stone that she usually tried to silence. Her fingertips found the source of the blood to be a cut in her scalp in the hair near her temple. Using her other hand, she whipped out a Sokolov elixir and pressed it into Lila's hands. Cold fingertips took the vial from her and turned it over to feel along the glass.

Emily softened, “It’s an elixir.”

“Oh- but that’s much too much money,” she said, trying to give it back and pushing the bottle in the wrong direction.

“Consider it a payment for using your shrine.” Emily smiled.

Lila considered that and then uncapped the container and drank the elixir.  “It’s not my shrine. It’s his.”

Emil helped her to her feet. “What happened here?” She asked, even though she was sure she already knew.

“I guess he thought I was a Weeper or a ghost. It’s happened before but usually I can get away before anything comes of it.”

“Here let me.” Emily made to catch her when she swayed. “I know of a good place to hole up for the night.”

“Oh no, I couldn’t inconvenience you,” Lila said, wiping at the blood on her face and missing the trail beneath her eyes completely.

The woman shuddered where Emily placed a hand on her bare arm. Karnaca was balmy as always, but the nightly spikes of humidity drove a chill into your bones. The few nights she’d spent outside her room right over the ship’s engines had driven her to find abandoned blankets to take refuge in. She shrugged out of her jacket and placed it around Lila’s shoulders. Its pockets hung heavy and oddly off of her frame, but she held it on her shoulders with one hand closing the front together.

“Thank you, Emily.”

“Can I take your hand?” Emily asked, unsure of how to lead her to the safe house she’d cleared out.

Lila laughed and winced- moving one of her hands up to touch the side of her head. She adjusted her grip on the jacket so that it wouldn’t fall. Instead of answering, she held her hand out.

Emily found herself smiling again and took the offered hand. The safe house was down by one of the canals and easy enough to lead Lila too. It was likely an old maintenance building before it had been abandoned- now it was stocked with food and a pile of old bedding Emily had squirreled away during her time in the city. After a quiet walk down some stairs and side-streets, they arrived at their destination.

“Wait here for a moment,” Emily said, losing her form and slipping through a pipe to the other side of the door to unlock it. “Okay.”

Lila walked forward unsteady, holding her hand out and finding her way to the bed and sitting down. Emily relocked the door and double checked the escape routes. They’d be difficult to navigate with another person but it was doable.

“The Void consumes, sometimes I can’t keep up and there’s an overflow-” Lila said after a moment. “I’m not marked- actually, I don’t know if I’m marked. Can’t see. Sometimes I feel like there’s one but then it vanishes.” Her fingers trail over an unblemished hand.

“I could see one there,” Emily says, quietly. “It’s not- well. It would be a lie to say the Outsider’s gifts aren’t fun, but they're also a heavy responsibility. I spent my childhood knowing my father was capable of many of the things I can now do. Yet, the Outsiders gifts to another were why my mother died.”

“A knife is a knife no matter who wields it; some can whittle art with one or use it to murder another. Sometimes the same person with the same knife,” Lila shrugged.

“True enough,” Emily murmured, divesting herself of her equipment. The other woman’s head tilted as she heard the gentle clink of each weapon being placed on the box near the mattress. It was on the floor- what she wouldn’t give for a Dunwall Tower bed. But she’d slept in worse places.

Glancing over at her guest, Emily smiled to herself. Yes, there were definitely worse places. She lit a small oil lamp for herself to see by.

"Come here a moment," Emily said walking forward. After searching through her pants pocket, she retrieved a comb. "May I comb some of the blood out of your hair? I'll be careful."

Lila nodded and turned away from Emily, allowing her access to her hair. It was long and dirty, but Emily took it in sections starting from the bottom combing it out with her fingers and the comb. She talked softly as she worked, mostly babble about old friends and musing over the state of the city. 

When she was done, the hair shimmered softly in the lamp light. "There, all done. You should get some rest, I'll keep a short watch to make sure we weren't followed before getting some rest myself. Don't hesitate to wake me if something happens."

Lila nodded and laid down, closing her strange eyes. "Emily?"

"Yes?"

"It's nice to be able to talk to someone that understands."

Emily nodded thoughtfully, "Yes, I quite think it is. It's nice to have friends in Karnca. In Gristol I never had that many, it always seemed that I was too busy."

"Are you going home soon?"

"I don't know. I've got things to put in order here. The city is... a mess to navigate and even if it wasn't. I don't know what my goal is here. I'm not used to having this much free reign with my time and how to approach situations," she trailed off as she noticed that Lila's breathing had taken on the even timbre of sleep.

"Goodnight, Lila," Emily said, leaning back against the wall and resting her eyes.

 

* * *

 

"Good morning, Emily."

Emily blinked sleep out of her eyes and rubbed at the sea salt that had settled on her cheek during the night. The stuff seemed to get everywhere in this city. If it wasn't salt it was dust, there was never a break. This city drastically needed reform in its mining processes. 

"Good morning," Emily said through a yawn. "You've got a bit of- uh, void, beneath your eyes."

"Oh, thank you." Lila said, rubbing at her cheeks with the sleeve of her dress. 

Emily leaned forward and fished out a handkerchief from her jacket. "You missed a spot," Emily said, taking it and rubbing the spot on her right cheek.

Her fingertips tingled again, and the pale skin beneath them heated under her touch.

"T-thank you."

"Here, keep this," Emily said, pressing the handkerchief into her hands. "We've not got a great selection for breakfast but we've got some bread and grapes, as well as some tinned goods."

Lila nodded, "Anything is good."

She busied herself preparing some semblance of breakfast and passing it to Lila, who gracefully ate what she was handed without much comment. Emily knew it was no Dunwall Tower cuisine, but it was fresh.

The talked over breakfast, sticking to light subjects and relating small anecdotes from the city. Emily asked if she'd heard a song that one of the bands in the city had begun to sing. She hadn't yet, and Emily recommended it to her when she had the time to stop by. 

Lila opened her mouth to say something more, but instead reached out her hand and set it on the bed next to her. Emily let her hand fall to cover it in a casual gesture.

"Thank you for this." Lila said. 

"It's no problem, if you have need of me I'm on a ship called the Dreadful Whale." 

"What a dreadful name," Lila laughed, her face still pink. 

Emily was at a loss for words watching her for a moment. "I get the feeling it has some dramatic irony."

Lila nodded, opening her mouth and then stopping before beginning hesitantly, "I wish you luck in your endeavours." 

"And I on yours," Emily took her hand in both of hers. "If anyone bothers you run as swift as shadows." 

She gasped as a branding spark jumped between her hands to Lila's, burning a facsimile of the Outsider's mark on the back of her hand. Instantly a song joined the bonecharms that whispered on her belt. 

Her voice was awestruck and small, "Oh, wow, my father spoke of Daud sharing his mark with his Whalers, but I never thought- are you okay? I don't know how to undo this."

Lila's face was flaming red now. "No, no. I'm fine. It feels... nice. You won't struggle because of this?"

"I don't feel much of anything. It's kind of like a runesong. Certainly not a strain."

Lila tucked her hair behind her ears and bit down on her lower lip. "I wish I had something to- oh!" She reached out a hand that trailed from her shoulder to her face, leaning in to press a brief kiss to Emily's lips. She smelled of wheat and tasted of grapes. "Thank you, Emily."

"Anytime," Emily echoed, her own cheeks flushed. "Before you go, let me tell you a little of what I can do. It might help you. I think you'll like shadow walking." 

"As if I need an excuse to spend time with a kind and beautiful woman," Lila laughed, poking Emily in the arm and nearly missing her. "I've nowhere to be."

Emily did have somewhere to be, but still found herself opening her mouth to say: "Me either."


End file.
